As the power requirements for modern electronics continue to decrease, many devices which were once dependent on wired power are now being implemented as portable devices operating from self-contained power sources. The most prominent source of portable power is the electrochemical battery, which converts chemical energy into electricity. However, long lasting batteries require large amounts of space for chemical storage, and inevitably require replacement when the chemical reaction no longer takes place. There are many transducers and scavenging energy sources (SES) that are able to exploit their environment to generate low levels of electrical power over a long-term time period, including photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric generators, thermionic generators, and kinetic/piezoelectric power generators. This generated power is sustainable as long as specific environmental conditions exist and also does not require the large volume of a long lifetime battery. In addition to the required voltage generation, stable power conversion requires excess energy to be efficiently stored in an ultracapacitor or similar device and monitoring control algorithms to be implemented, while computer modeling and simulation can be used to complement experimental testing. However, building an efficient and stable power source scavenged from a varying input source is challenging.
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